


Lost in a Book

by Dragonlingdar



Category: Octopath Traveler (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Books, Gen, Magical Accidents, Magical Artifacts, Sharing a Body
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-23
Updated: 2019-07-23
Packaged: 2020-07-17 02:54:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,607
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19944976
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dragonlingdar/pseuds/Dragonlingdar
Summary: Cyrus hadn't expected the spell to work.





	Lost in a Book

**Author's Note:**

  * For [evoboo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/evoboo/gifts).



> I am throwing fics at you because I appreciate you and have too many ideas. This does include two of the characters you mentioned in your request, so I'm sure it's okay??
> 
> Additionally: Nothing Octopath Traveler belongs to me.

Cyrus stretched and yawned. He recognized the grogginess of over-sleep and tried to muddle through why he would have overslept. He tended to be late-to-bed early-to-rise.

_ What was I doing? I was reading that book, tried out a few spells in it, and I think one of them worked. I must have been working too hard for too long, though… _

Cyrus opened his eyes, frowned, then blinked.

_ This most definitely isn’t my study _ , he thought as he looked around the room. 

The room was far more spartan than anything he had ever owned, and there were barely any books. There were objects he initially had no word for before one just popped into his head--television, refrigerator, computer, among others--as well as more familiar things with structure and design he found odd. He pushed himself standing and something thudded onto the floor. He looked down to see his book resting on the carpet, but when he reached out to get it, the hand was wrong. 

He startled and brought the hand up to his face, then looked down and patted at his body. It wasn’t his. He  _ knew _ it wasn’t his. 

_ What has happened?  _ he thought, both bewildered and intrigued. He picked up the book and set it carefully on the table for later consideration before walking over to the small bathroom that was attached to the larger room--there was, according to his random bursts of knowledge, a mirror there.

He pushed open the door and took in the fixtures with a mixture of curiosity and familiarity before turning his attention to the mirror.

The face that stared back at him most definitely wasn’t his own. His hair had been chestnut brown, not silver. His eyes had been a different shade of blue. His skin had been much paler, and he hadn’t had the birthmark that was spread across one side of his face. 

_ Oh, dear. What exactly was that spell supposed to do?  _ Cyrus wondered as his fingers slowly explored the curves of a new face.  _ I think there has been a horrible mistake. _

Cyrus quickly walked back to the living room, sat down, picked up the book, and started reading in earnest. 

_ What went wrong, what went wrong…?  _ He chanted softly to himself as his eyes skimmed across the words on the page. It took a moment for the words to make sense again, but eventually there seemed to be a shift and everything snapped back into focus. 

Calloused fingertips rasped across the page as he fought to figure out where the spell had gone awry.

Only to discover that it had absolutely worked as intended. It had, indeed, seemed to have preserved his ‘memory’--or, rather, consciousness. He just hadn’t thought it would result in consciousness transfer to the next person besides himself to read the book.

“Oh dear,” Cyrus said, and startled at the difference in his voice before shaking off his surprise.  _ I have to fix this. The young man whose body this is deserves to have control back. My own body is likely far out of my grasp, but I have no right to simply usurp another’s.  _

Cyrus found a pen and a notebook and began to scribble notes as he read and re-read and re-re-read the spells in the book and wrote out what spells he easily recalled. Even though a large part of him was curious--What was the outside like? How much had changed? What had changed? Would he recognize anything?--his guilt outweighed it. It was also rather inconsiderate to be walking around in someone else’s body without their permission.

It took him a few hours, but he eventually put together something that could potentially allow the original owner to have their body back. Part of Cyrus was loathe to think that he would be exiled to the darkness of death when there was clearly so many things to learn in the brand new time he had woken up in, but, again, it was rude to just overrule someone else’s control over the body that rightfully belonged to them. 

With a heavy sigh, Cyrus closed the book and held the paper he had written the spell out on before him. It took a few tries, but he eventually convinced himself to speak, the words of the spell coming easily and authoritatively. Upon finishing, he felt an odd wrench and yank, but, instead of descending into a never-ending darkness, his perspective merely shifted. He appeared to be lying on the floor, although it didn’t feel like he was corporeal any longer. The young man above him groaned and shook his head vigorously. 

“What the hell?” he growled, then tensed at the sheets of paper that Cyrus had written the spell out on. “What the  _ hell _ ?” the young man repeated, a tinge of fear entering his voice.

_ Oh, I should have left some sort of apology note,  _ Cyrus thought.

The young man stood quickly and almost flung the sheets off himself. However, when the young man walked away, Cyrus found himself following , almost as if he were--

_ Shadowing his footsteps,  _ Cyrus finished the thought.  _ Have I become his shadow? How interesting! I wonder if I can do anything besides follow along? I imagine that there will be times when this is going to be distinctly uncomfortable, but, no matter! I get to see things now! Experience the world, at least in part. _

“I knew I should’t’ve taken the book,” the young man said, picked it up, and moved to trash it.

“Wait, no! Don’t throw that out!” Cyrus called out, desperate. 

The young man froze as his hand clenched onto the book. He looked around very slowly, seeming like he was barely breathing. To Cyrus’ relief, he put the book back down on the table, and Cyrus was dragged along as the young man examined every last corner of his home.

He stopped by his window and Cyrus could imagine that he was regarding the book suspiciously.

“It’s a book ,” he grumbled to himself. He walked back over to the table and started to pick up and examine the sheets of paper Cyrus had scribbled on. “And what is this ?”

To Cyrus’ mild dismay, the young man was curious enough that he read out Cyrus’ incantation and, a moment of vertigo later, Cyrus was back in the body and, he imagined, the young man was now occupying his shadow.

“Um,” Cyrus said aloud. “Well, I suppose I should introduce myself to you. I...didn’t really think through what would happen if you found my notes. But, it’s truly lovely to see that someone else can read my handwriting! My name is Cyrus Albright and I am--well, was, I suppose--an instructor and scholar at the Royal Academy in Atlasdam. That book is one of my spellbooks and I really would prefer that it not be thrown out. In reading the last spell that I was working on in that book, you activated the spell and awakened my consciousness and, ah...are sharing your body with me. I apologize, I did not think that the spell would work , let alone preserve my consciousness.”

_ ‘Well isn’t that fucking fantastic! FIX THIS.’  _ the young man yelled at him, although his voice seemed to come from underwater and at a distance. 

“I will! I’ll switch us back so you have control of your body and I will happily remain in your shadow, since clearly it is no longer my time. I don’t think you can get rid of me, though.”

_ ‘What does that even mean?! I’m not sharing my body with you! Or your brain! Or whatever this is!’ _

“I, ah, would have to do research to find a way to undo whatever I have done. Do you still have libraries? Please confirm that you still have libraries in this time.”

_ ‘Yes, we still have libraries. ’ _

Cyrus sighed in relief.

“Well, if you take me to a library and let me browse, I’m sure I can eventually discover something that may assist in rectifying this situation entirely!” The prospect of 'dying' was not something that Cyrus relished, but it was neither his time nor place.

_ Although, perhaps I can find a way to transfer my consciousness to any object and not have me take over if and when the spell is activated... _

_ ‘I’m not letting you control my body in a gods-damned library,'  _ the young man broke in.  _ 'I haven’t been to a library since I was in school!’ _

“Then would you prefer to stay in this situation?”

_ ‘...no. But, let’s use the computer first. That way I can walk you through how to reserve a book and then I’ll go get it for you.’ _

“Computer?” Cyrus wondered, and he felt a kind of nudge that made him look at a particular apparatus. Cyrus walked over to it and took a seat at the table and followed the young man’s instructions to bring up a web browser.

“Before I get distracted, what is your name?”

_ ‘My name?’ _

“Well, I need to call you something instead of ‘young man.’”

_ ‘Yeah, that actually sounds a little creepy. I’m Therion.’ _

“Lovely! Pleased to meet you, Therion.”

_ ‘I’m sure.’ _

After cautiously poking around on the computer, a thought dawned on Cyrus.

“Wait. So, I can search for anything I desire.”

_ ‘Yes.’ _

“And as long as I can read it, no one will stop me from learning?”

_ ‘...yes.’ _

“Wonderful!” Cyrus chirped and promptly began searching to see what magical knowledge had survived the years.

_ ‘Great. I’m sharing my body with a fucking nerd ,’  _ Therion grumbled as Cyrus hummed and happily began his research in earnest.


End file.
